Sore shoulder

Not that any of you sent me cards to mark the occasion but I recently turned 7 years old.

I have developed Wisdom commensurate with my Age. I'm keeping it to myself for the time being as you are all much more interesting without the benefit of what I could tell you.

I have also developed Sore Shoulders. This is impacting on how often I can post to this blog - getting on the chair to reach the keyboard is not an insubstantial task (I have legs and tail feathers to arrange in lady-like fashion, after all). Aching limbs also means less Tugger chasing which is impacting on how many rolls I can perform on the terraces. I should explain; for a long while now I have been able to fool both ST & FP into thinking I am victory rolling on Tugger after each good catch, whereas in fact I am rolling for the sake of rolling. Dogs love rolling on grass and sometimes there is fox poo, sometimes there isn't but a roll is a roll and they're nearly impossible to resist.

So that's all from me for the time being. It is almost supper time and I haven't licked my front paws in preparation yet, or dug up my bed.

Gum in the grass

This morning in celebration of a great catch* I put Tugger on the grass and then rolled on it. I stood up when FP started screaming loudly.

Apparently rolling on boggy, wet grass is upsetting for owners to see and, indeed, when I stood up I was a complete mess. I shook but that made FP scream again as she was standing close by...

Apparently wet, muddy dogs shaking near people is upsetting...Who knew?

Later it was discovered that I had inadvertently also rolled on some chewing gum, which had stuck in my fur. Can you guess what happened later? Yes, that's right, I was put in the bath.

Apparently chewing gum does not wash out of fur, just as it does not wash out of human hair, so FP had to snip a little of my mane. This is not good. 

I am the fluffiest dog in the house this evening. I smell nice and I don't have gum in my fur anymore. If you saw me, you would want to cuddle me.

*Tugger flies great through the air and I can usually catch it on one bounce off firm ground since, rather than watching its flight, I like to belt off in the general direction I think it's going in. With the ground being so heavy, good bounces are few and far between (I'm more likely to end up with muddy water in my eyes from a splash down). If I pull of a great catch without letting Tugger bounce, I think a celebratory roll is not too much.

An early Christmas present for you

This is hilarious.

I needed a laugh today as this morning in the park Tugger was pinched by a dog who is Faster Than Me. To retrieve Tugger I had to see off this Robber Dog's Stroppy Friend and move faster than is strictly wise for a 6 year old with no warm up before hand. I was worn out by all this, I tell you, WORN OUT.

Yes Tugger!

Picture the scene: car pulls in, door opens, and I'm launched!

Launched, I tell you! 

I can run, jump, grab Tugger from the air, then look for all the world as if I'm going to bring it back to FP & ST before dropping it half way and running off to supervise other random dogs in the vicinity.

Normal service is resumed!

No Tugger

Yes, no Tugger in the park today as FP & I were unaccompanied by the mightiest 'Tugger Tosser' in the land - ST! 

You can tell why I wanted to qualify the term tosser by keeping Tugger in there, can't you? And this reminds me of something I was reading today about free listing as a research method to help with information retrieval. If I ever catch up with Resolver Hound, I'm planning to question him on the size of his vocabulary because he seems very capable at finding his way around.

You might recall my past post about a collie who had around 340 words and got on TV because it could fetch its toy from the next room. Well, I dare say most collies out there when invited to bring their toy from the next room would probably end up bringing the one they have most fun with (often it's the one which exercises their humans the most!), so I don't think that collie is SOOOO special on this evidence. 

I would however be impressed if that collie had made a list of toys. And more impressed still if it had displayed its preferences for the toys by placing them in a hierarchy - most fun at the top, tooth-snagging rags at the bottom. If it happened that a reasonable number of collies had done this listing, we could then compare lists and derive from the results the ultimate toy for collies*. Then, if collies were also librarians**, they could use this technique to make sure that all the collie catalog users had appropriate keywords to search with so that they could locate the toys on the shelves***. BTW, this catalog would have nothing to do with cats & would be called something along the lines of 'Golden Information Retriever'.

*You couldn't do this with spaniels. I've seen spaniels who were just happy to splash in puddles.

**It could happen.

***Shelves are no obstacle to collies.

Tugger - the Ages

I've decided that I shall write a history of Tuggers.

I'm gonna take some photos, do a bit of writing about Tuggers and remember the Tuggers that have been lost at sea. You'll love it. But I haven't written it yet, so you'll have to wait.

Wait!

Tugger; I'll never EVER forget you!

Something terrible has happened. Park Tugger (Tugger, for short) was swept out to sea and lost yesterday. Sigh.

I was on a beach playing with ST & FP, doing my usual thing of running after Tugger, catching it off one bounce and then legging it into the sea where I drop Tugger just deep enough to get wet but not so deep that ST or FP would get soaked retrieving it.

Except that this one time I went too far. Or, actually, the tide had gone out farther than I thought and so I was lured deeper than usual and with the breeze being out to sea and a bit stiff...Well, Tugger in no time was beyond the shelf and floating jerkily away from me.

I sent in ST (he's taller than FP and tends not to shriek) but Tugger was already deeper than ST's shorts. I tried giving him my hardest "Strip off and get Tugger!" stare but he muttered something about dog-owners suffering heart failure whilst attempting daring rescues at sea, blah, blah, blah.

All the while Tugger was floating further and further away. FP took a photo (see above). It was sad to see Tugger going and I like to think that somewhere along the Norfolk coastline someone will find Tugger and post a message on this blog letting me know so that I can pop over and be reunited with what was undoubtedly the best ever Tugger.

In the meantime, I have still got Very Old Tugger (ripped), House Tugger (okay) and 2 new, completely unused Tuggers in the cupboard. Also Kong Wubba made it home safely (sandy but safely) and I did a quick check when we arrived home and all the rugby balls are fine. Phew.
FP took a photo just before the tragic floating off incident which, to my mind, captures the quintessential Tugger-ness of Park Tugger. A top toy.